Member Musings: A Few of My (New) Favorite Things

Posted by Newsletter Editor on February 18th, 2014

My Fitbit One. It tracks my steps, distance, floors and calories burned – and my calories consumed (if I log them). It even tracks my sleep, how long I slept and even if I was restless for certain periods. OK, I am kind of a sucker for gadgets but it is really motivating to see your ‘calories burned’ slowly going up all day and then surging up when you’re active.

http://www.fitbit.com/

Blocking a tedious repeat telemarketing (or in my case tele-fundraising caller) on my iPhone (with iOS7). I didn’t even know I could do this! I only happened upon it because I was so irritated by a certain campaign repeatedly calling to nag me to donate (again) that I had to see how many times they had actually called (7 in 12 hours, no lie). And there it was, quietly nestled at the bottom of the recent caller info screen: BLOCK THIS CALLER. Honestly, it felt like Christmas.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5845

Amazon Smile. A friend of mine recently started working there and posted about this program on his Facebook page. I’d never heard of it! And let me tell you, I buy A LOT from Amazon. Basically it’s a charitable program that lets you select an organization and Amazon will donate .5% of the purchase price of eligible purchases to your designated charity. The trick: you have to shop and order via smile.amazon.com (but it’s your same account).

http://smile.amazon.com/about

Kidgits Club at Stanford Mall. I think I’m a bit late to this party, but I just registered my son while we were there for Santa photos. Once you become a member (for $5 a year), your child gets to spin a prize wheel (in the guest services office) every time they visit the mall. The child also gets a free kid’s meal at CPK (with purchase of an adult meal). That pretty much makes it worth the $5 right there.